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This is a dumb question but...

Why would anyone want to overclock their processor and or their video card? The reason I ask this is because I don't see why you would want to compromise your systems stability just to gain a tiny bit of speed. Does overclocking serve a purpose that I don't know about or what?

You have a very good chance of getting 2.4 GHz out of a P4 1.8A or a P4 1.6A with little or no VCore increase. I wouldnīt call that a "tiny bit of speed" gain. Itīs getting the most out of your money!

PD: I think many people that are into extreme overclocking do it mainly because they like it and enjoy squeezing the last possible MHz from their chips. Thatīs a purpose in itself!

PD II: And overclockers want their comps to be stable! Their target is to be STABLE at the highest speed possible. A huge overclock thatīll just let you get to the desktop and capture a screenie of WCPUID before crashing serves no purpose, except maybe earning dubious bragging rights...

Re: This is a dumb question but...

Originally posted by netchspadetch Why would anyone want to overclock their processor and or their video card? The reason I ask this is because I don't see why you would want to compromise your systems stability just to gain a tiny bit of speed. Does overclocking serve a purpose that I don't know about or what?

Overclocking is cool b/c you're getting performance that's you didn't pay for, plus it's fun to tweak your system. It's like modding your car to make it faster (turbos, NOS, etc.), you do it because it's a hobby. If you call 418 MHz increase "a tiny bit of spped" then I want that "tiny bit of speed" in everything I do.

I've been running a Duron 600Mhz (6x100) at 900MHz (8x112MHz) 100% stable for over 2 years. I also run a Geforce2 GTS in that system at 210/410 (stock is 200/333 and memory is MUCH more important on these cards). I have my memory tweeked to the max settings at 149Mhz (256MB SDRAM). All said and done, I have likely increased the speed in my system by 20-50%. This is my second computer. My main system only has the memory tweeked out and the GeForce4 Ti4200 running at the speed of a Ti4400 (saved me about $50).

If it does not run stable, then I do not overclock. That is why my main system is still running at 1.4Ghz. I had it running at 1.53, but it was not 100% stable.

Heck I've had a K6-2 450 running at 4.5x112Mhz bus, a Pentium 233 (3.5x66) running at 280Mhz (2.5x112Mhz) and a Voodoo3 2000 running at 3000 (166 instead of 143 for about 4 years now). My third system is a Celeron 900Mhz. I'd overclock it if the motherboard supported more bus speeds and voltage increases for the CPU and memory. I could do 990MHz only with it. My Voodoo3 2000 (at 166MHz) is holding it back anyways.

As stated above, its fun. Its no different than tweaking a car to get the most performance out of it. I gained 470MHz on my Athlon 1600+ (stock is 1.4GHz, running at 1.87GHz) and that's a HUGE performance increase for a $55 chip....33% more speed As well as a bus speed nearly 50% overclocked (187 vs stock 133).

It gives me something to do when I'm not in school, in sports, or with my friends!

Whats the highest my p4 northwood at 2.26ghz could go without crashing?

Also I have trouble beliving that squeezing a couple hundred mhz out of a chip that was designed to run at a certain speed could prove to be beneficial while gaming? It seems like you are pushing your chips to the limit and hoping they wont crash. I doubt you could tell the difference between 2ghz and 2.4 ghz with your naked eye. Why would anyone want to do that other than to score a little higher on the benchmark?

Originally posted by netchspadetch Whats the highest my p4 northwood at 2.26ghz could go without crashing?

no one but you can really be certain, i'd check the cpu database at overclockers.com and see, but cores differ and one persons overclock may not be yours.

As for overclocking, some folks buy budget speeds and get some more juice out of it, and they bought the budget chip solely to get mor speed, also alot of chips are downbinned to fullfill demand, so just because it says 1500MHz for instance, does not mean it was designed for 1500MHz, its quite possibly a 2Ghz chip or more just downbinned to 1.5Ghz.
For stuff like divx encoding, a faster cpu helps alot, cutting time down quite a bit, especially for people like me who encode alot.

Overclocking is part hobby tweaking, part disease, part the thrill of getting just that little extra bit out of a system.

To be successful at it, and be able to tweak a system to much higher speeds and run stable, requires you to learn a lot about how the system truly functions, the relationships and interdependance of the system components, operating systems, Bios etc. Plus it just feels good

Actually, overclocking my 1.4 to nearly 1.9 is a 33% increase. Upped my 3dMark2001 score by nearly 2000 points, from 8000 to 10000 which is about a 20% increase in framerate. Granted, this is a benchmark, but it resembles real life gaming because I noticed I was able to run my Comanche4 at more aggressive settings. That's with my 8500 at stock 275/275 speeds. I just got home from RadioShack where I bought some resistors for my 8500. Its going to be one hell of a mod, and hopefully I'll be able to overclock my Radeon way beyond what I could get last time!

netchspadetch
The P4 core can take quite a bit. A 100Mhz (quad pumped to 400Mhz) bus version of the P4 would be easier to overclock do to the higher bus speeds and better memory required. Most better motherboards and DDR memory though should be able to hit 150Mhz for 2.55Ghz. This would be at stock voltage and cooling without any troubles. A 2.2Ghz would be better. You likely would be able to set the bus speed to 133MHz for 2.93Ghz. A little extra voltage and better cooling would likely be needed to keep it stable, but it is obtainable on most P4's with just air cooling. The 2Ghz (Northwood core) is one of the best. Most will do 133Mhz for 2.67Ghz with stock cooling and voltages. I have seen some 2.4Ghz hit the magical 133MHz, but you are pushing what you can do with air cooling. This would give you 3.19Ghz. Some have made it this high with air cooling, but not many. With water cooling you might make it as high as 3.5Ghz or so. Now some have made it to 50% overclocks or more but the higher the bus speeds and the higher the percentage overclock the harder it will be.

Most of the 100Mhz bus P4 will give you a 33% overclock or higher for the P4 1.6a to 2.2. These are the best.

Now this is just your CPU and if you have a crappy graphics card you will likely not see any increase. If you have a good graphics card that matches your system well and you overclock that too, then you might see some big increases. If I do not overclock my video card UT2003 gets a bit choppy at 1024x768 32bit color 8x AF, 4xFSAA. I would have to turn off some of the eye candy or lower the resolution to keep it as smooth. I'm very close to running it smooth at 1280x1024 and now that my memory is fixed I will try it. Half my 256MB stick was fried and now I have 512MB and my 256 is being replaced under warrenty. WindowsXP really sucks with 128MB of memory for most apps.

Also my Duron was overclocked 50% and my Geforce2 GTS was overclocked 23%. Between that and the memory tweeks and my system memory running at 149Mhz, I'd say I had a 15-30% boost in most apps. That I can notice easy.

i look at overclocking a little differently than some.i dont think you are overclocking untill you raise the vcore.right now i have an xp1600 that runs stable at 1762 with default voltage so im not overclocking it im running it at its true rated speed